Medical details on a USB drive

by David

It seems almost every week there is a new idea for USB drives, the cost of which has come down so much that it is now practical for business’s and other organizations to use them as giveaways to promote new products or ideas. This is a simple but very effective way to show the world what you have to offer, because it is a re-usable device once the data stored on the USB drive has been viewed it can then be deleted and the drive used again. The Band of Life uses USB drive technology to store medical details.
We have all seen those rubber wrist bands that charities sell, Band of Life have taken this one step further, the band now contains a USB Drive which when connected to the computer via the USB port downloads special software this enables the user to enter their medical data. Then to prevent this medical data being stolen or copied, once the information has been stored on the band, the software destroys the data, and thus keeping this sensitive material safe from being copied.

The Band of Life could actually be a literally a life saver, should the carrier be involved in accident, medical teams can access this by simple placing it into the USB port of the any computer, anywhere in the world, and as such the data can be viewed in English, French, Spanish and Italian, it is clear to see the benefits of the band.

However there are two problems that occur to me. What happens if the band is lost? There is important information on it, which can be used for identity theft; it does not actually mention anything about the process on the Website. Another concern is medical updates, every time you need to update the Band of Life you will need to pay a fee to acquire a new piece of the software, it could end up costing a lot should someone’s medical condition change, and lets face it, people who have medical conditions are probably the prime customers for the Band of Life, good idea though and costs $24.95 plus $5 shipping and handling.